WE GO AGAIN.
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Doing the Rob Burrows Leeds marathon in May. Watched the doc about the 7 in 7 that Kevin Sinfield did last year. The man is a legend and should be knighted or whatever the fuck those Brits do to recognise those going above and beyond for good causes. Very inspiring and motivating.
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Wishing good health & enjoyable running to all clique members.
Has anyone got any running goals for the year? Do you find it helps to set SMART goals?!
I hope to get faster across any distance I race but that goal may be too vague. I’m currently training for the Raheny 5 Mile at the end of January & Trim 10 Mile at the start of February.
No definite plans after that but plenty of races in the first half of the year after Trim. Might work up towards a half marathon in March or April. Still have the idea of running an October marathon but won’t commit to it until later in the year.
It’d be good to stay injury free too.
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Half marathons in Carlingford in March and Dundalk in April if you’re looking for one. The Dundalk one will be flatter.
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Just in from my first fun run of the year 
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Dungarvan 10 mile at the start of Feb is my first goal of the year. Somewhere around 85 mins would be unrale with the amount of weight I’m lugging around.
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Knee was niggling me in lead up to Valencia. Went to physio couple of weeks ago and said I have patella tendonitis and recommends easy running for 3 months. I have jogged last 3 days and knee seems fine so don’t know what to think. I’ve to go back to him next week but will be frustrating if I can’t do any races until March/April.
Best of luck to everyone for the year ahead.
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Doing the Donadea half marathon the weekend after next but that’s just a marker more than racing for time. Want to do a few races in next few months if Achilles holds up. Range between 5k and 10 miles or so.
Following a different plan of attack to try sort the Achilles of more regular runs at a ridiculously easy pace. Have no clue if it’ll work but whatever I’ve done the last 2 years hasn’t work so a new approach is worth trying.
Would love to get back sub 20 for 5km and close to 42 for 10k before June if I could. There’s a 10 mile race in town here in March I might try attack for a PB as well. Not an easy route but hard to look past when it’s so close.
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Just in from a treacherous 8k here in east north east Limerick. Roads and footpaths wicked slippy but I needed to get out and get back in harness. Going to do the 10k in Caherconlish tomorrow week as it’s the closest one to home. Goal is the marathon in the Limerick on the May weekend. Did the half last year and seeing all the stories from the crew here about doing the dublin one made up my mind for me.
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I’m seeking to do a marathon this year which will be my first in ten years. Have only really got back into running recently but enjoying it.
There’s fuck all social running in 
so I enjoy following the running threads here for inspiration/motivation. Wishing all posters good luck with the running in 2024! 
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Do DCM and use it to do some PR.
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Was just about to post the same thing. Easy exposure for the charity. Throw in a few warm up races in the preceding few months as well.
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Easy GoPro opportunities for your Temple Runs @RaymondCrotty. Give people an insight into what running in Cambodia is really like
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I’d like to do Belfast or Dublin but not sure how hard is it to get entry to the latter? We were a charity partner in 2022 but the firm who now manages that for DCM charge charities like ours ridiculous prices.
You’ll pick up a transfer or an entry for DCM easy enough. The lottery was over subscribed so lots didn’t get entries but in the months building up there’ll be loads of numbers flying around. I’m sure everyone on here would keep an eye out for you too.
Belfast is in April I think so you’d want to be starting into your training for it pretty soon. Maybe that might suit though
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I went out early this morning with the aim of doing 20-22km. It was like running on pure ice in spots. Dark for the first 45-50 mins still so had no chance of a thaw. Took in some of the local Parkrun route towards the end and it was like a skating rink in spots where the sun hadn’t got at it. Was surprised they still went ahead with it and that there wasn’t an accident. Couple of lads still went sub 20 which takes some going in conditions like that
Also realised that jumping out of bed, rushing food in and rushing out the door on a freezing cold morning isn’t good for HR. For the slow jog down the hill from our house my HR was tipping into nearly 170 
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Our local Parkrun was cancelled and rightly so, Tramore Valley Park was very slippery in places.
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Good luck with the marathon training @Realbhoy & @RaymondCrotty. As others have said, I think you’d have a very good chance of getting a DCM spot in the summer transfer window, Ray. You’re motoring nicely these days based on Strava.
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2024 thread lads!
Anyway, this was today. Very impressed at the setup. 3 half marathons and a marathon run off starting at 9.15 with the last half going off at 2.15. I went off at 12.30. Around 150 or so per event I think.
The half was a short 2.2km loop followed by 5 3.78km loops. It would normally be 4 x 5.3ish km loops but part was flooded so they got creative.
Due to it being a forest the watch is a waste of time. I had a rough goal of around 1:45 or 5 mins km’s for as long as I could. was doing this by the watch but because it measured short I was doing quicker. Hit 9.76km in just under 48 mins by the official time and knew it was too quick so eased off as I knew I’d blow up. Had a few stops along the way so had given up on target time so was nicely surprised to see 1:45 on the timer as the finish line came into view.
It’s a brilliant event for this time of year. Surface very forgiving as it’s forest tracks so easy on the joints. noone seems to be running it for a PB as it’s impossible to gauge your pace. Atmosphere is lovely. Lots of walkers and families along the route offering encouragement.
When I was fucked at the finish line I got chatting to a Carlow man who had just finished his 130th official marathon. He has 20 more under his belt but doesn’t count them as they were during lockdowns. Probably in his 50s. He has 3 counties left to do a Marathon in but none of them have any scheduled - Tyrone, Cavan and I think Monaghan. Some going.
Anyway, it’s an event worth doing next year lads if you want a target for January to give you a base of where you’re at before the serious stuff starts on the roads in the coming weeks and months.
Edit - I gave up watching the watch for the 2nd half and just turned it to time and kept an eye on the beep every Km knowing it wasn’t accurate. So just ran on feel. @fenwaypark called this out last year. Genuine game changer. Not a slave to data and makes it much more enjoyable.
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Well done pal.
I’ve never been to Donadea but people who race there seem to enjoy it & go back time after time.
Think that Anto chap who organises the Donadea races - the 50km event is next month - runs Pop Up Races.
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Yeah the whole thing is organised by Pop Up. They’re slowly pushing all the others out year by year. It’s a good operation they run even though behind the scenes it’s often held together by sellotape. Like every small business!
Today has definitely killed any idea of me ever doing that 50km. The monotony would be off the charts